Ad wars: Industry overwhelms labor, advocacy spending

By Ben Smith

12/14/09 01:59 PM EST

The media tracking firm TNSI-CMAG finds a continued flood of health care spending in the month of November, in its latest report, and also found that industry backed foes of health care legislation -- led by the Chamber of Commerce -- widely outspent its backers, with industry dollars on both sides swamping ads from unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In sum:

• In November, 117 political and issue advocacy groups aired television advertisements on issues related to healthcare, prescription drugs, Medicare and Social Security. These ads appeared nearly 91,000 times, airing locally in all 50 states, as well as nationally on Cable and Network TV, at an estimated cost of $58 million dollars.

The equality of every YouTube video on a blog like this can easily mask the difference between an ad that airs a few times inside the Beltway and an ad that moves national numbers. The Chamber of Commerce, the group finds, was "the main voice of the opposition" in November, spending $17 million to air 8 spots 30,361 times around the country.

The industry group AHIP spent $3.4 million on running ads 5,837 against the legislation; the 60 Plus association put $2.7 million behind running ads 6,803 times; the Employment Policies Institute spent $2.3 million running to ads 3,347 times; and the Biopharmaceutical trade group spent $1.5 million warning against Medicare cuts.

On the other side, the AARP led the way, spending $7.2 million airing ads 3,100 times on national cable in various markets, putting its seal of approval on the plan, and the PhRMA-backed Americans for Stable Quality Care spent $5.2 million.

Increasingly, the industry groups (and AARP) are demonstrating that they simply have deeper pockets than labor and other liberal advocacy groups: HCAN spent $621,000 on the month, SEIU spent $560,000, AFSCME and Americans United spent $421,000, and MoveOn spent $404,000.